In facilities that handle an abundance of waste (e.g., trash, composting, recyclable waste, etc.), such as those that may specialize in the collection and disposal of waste, or in which cleaning, manufacturing, public assembly or other activities result in the ancillary generation or aggregation of substantial volumes of waste, efficient waste management may be critical to the overall effectiveness of the facility. For example, some facilities may specialize in cleaning out the interior cabins of cars, trucks, buses, or other vehicles as part of preparation of the vehicles for subsequent use. In some of these facilities, waste may be, and often is, touched or otherwise handled five or more times by the same or different personnel as it is removed from the vehicles, transported through the facility, and ultimately removed from the premises.
For example, waste may first be cleaned out of a vehicle and placed into a bag-lined or unlined trash and/or recycle receptacle. Thereafter, as each receptacle becomes full, the bag liners or receptacles are moved, with or without manual or mechanical closure, from an initial location near the vehicle clean-out area to a staging area where they are aggregated or stored. Janitorial or other personnel then pick up the bags or receptacles from the staging area and transport them to a waste processing area. There, the bags are placed into, or the receptacles are dumped into, one or more large dumpsters or compactors (e.g., separate dumpsters or compactors for trash and recycling). Finally, the serially-handled waste is either emptied from the dumpster or compactor into a truck for removal from the premises, or the dumpster or compactor itself placed on or attached to a truck or trailer and transported off the premises.
The present inventors have, thus, recognized a need for improved systems and methods of handling waste to reduce the number of times waste is touched or handled, and to thereby streamline the waste management process by reducing the required labor.
Additional aspects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.